System and method for identifying vehicles for a purchaser from vehicle inventories

ABSTRACT

Processing of vehicle inventory information is described that allows vehicles that satisfy financial institution&#39;s financing requirements, as well as a purchaser&#39;s requirements are described. The inventory information is processed to determining eligible vehicles that meet the purchaser&#39;s requirements. The financial requirements are determined from financial booking information that describes how a financial institution determines the financing for vehicles providing a list of vehicles which can be financed by a financial institution while meeting the purchaser&#39;s requirements.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 15/852,938 which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/577,727, which claims priority to U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/918,388, filed Dec. 19, 2013 theentireties of which are hereby incorporated by reference for allpurposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The current disclosure is directed to vehicle purchasing utilizing avehicle inventory systems, and in particular to facilitatingidentification vehicles in the vehicle inventor systems for a purchaser.

BACKGROUND

When looking for a vehicle, a purchaser will typically be approved for aparticular purchase amount or may have a desired monthly payment rangefor the vehicle. When trying to find a vehicle, they typically find oneor more vehicles that may be in the price range of the desired monthlypayment. Once a desired vehicle is located, the vehicle and priceinformation is processed to determine if the vehicle meets bookingrequirements for the financial institution offering the loan for thevehicle for the purchaser.

While traditional approach as described above determines if a particularpurchaser can afford a particular vehicle, it is cumbersome to use sinceeach potential vehicle needs to be first selected and then checked tosee if the purchaser can afford it. In addition each financialinstitution may have different lending rates and requirements increasingthe complexity of the search process. The process of finding anappropriate vehicle can be time consuming and inefficient and notprovide satisfactory results in identifying an appropriate vehicle forthe purchaser. It would be desirable to have an additional, alternativeand/or improved process for identifying affordable vehicles for apurchaser from an inventory of vehicles.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments will be described further herein with reference to thedrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 depicts a system for identifying vehicles for a purchaser;

FIG. 2 depicts a process for identifying vehicles;

FIG. 3 depicts data structures used in identifying vehicles;

FIG. 4 depicts a method for identifying vehicles for a purchaser;

FIG. 5 depicts a method for identifying vehicles for a purchaser;

FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative display for identifying vehicles for apurchaser;

FIG. 7 depicts various apparatuses for use identifying vehicles for apurchaser; and

FIG. 8 depicts a method for identifying vehicles for a purchaser withpre-approval.

It should be noted that throughout the appended drawings, like featuresare identified by like reference numerals.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments are described below, by way of example only, with referenceto FIGS. 1-8.

In accordance with the present disclosure there is provided a method fordetermining eligible vehicles for a purchaser, the method comprising:receiving from a network attached computing device a purchaser financinginformation; determining a minimum vehicle value required to providedesired or approved financing amount or desired or approved monthlypayments based upon financing booking requirements associated with afinancial institution and the purchaser financing information;processing a data store containing a vehicle repository identifying aplurality of available vehicles and associated vehicle inventoryinformation, to identify from a plurality of available vehicles a subsetof eligible vehicles eligible for the purchaser for each vehicle havingan associated vehicle identification number (VIN) above a minimumvehicle value: calculating actual monthly payments for the vehicleassociated with the respective VIN; and adding the vehicle and monthlypayments to the subset of eligible vehicles for purchase when thecalculated actual monthly payments is equal to or below the desired orapproved monthly payments; and returning the subset of eligible vehiclesdetermined from the vehicle repository complying with the financingbooking requirements.

In accordance with the present disclosure there is provided a system fordetermining eligible vehicles for a purchaser comprising: one or moreprocessors coupled to one or more vehicle inventory source computingdevices through a network; a memory coupled to the one or moreprocessors, the memory containing instructions for configuring theprocessor to: receive, from a network attached computing device,purchaser financing information; determine a minimum vehicle valuerequired to provide desired or approved financing amount or desired orapproved monthly payments based upon financing booking requirementsassociated with a financial institution and the purchaser financinginformation; process a data store containing a vehicle repositoryidentifying a plurality of available vehicles and associated vehicleinventory information, to identify from a plurality of availablevehicles a subset of eligible vehicles eligible for the purchaser foreach vehicle having an associated vehicle identification number (VIN)above a minimum vehicle value: calculating actual monthly payments forthe vehicle associated with the respective VIN; and adding the vehicleand monthly payments to the subset of eligible vehicles for purchasewhen the calculated actual monthly payments is equal to or below thedesired or approved monthly payments; and returning the subset ofeligible vehicles determined from the vehicle repository complying withthe financing booking requirements to the one or more client computingdevices.

In accordance with the present disclosure there is provided anon-transitory computer readable memory containing instructions whichwhen executed by a processor perform the method of determining eligiblevehicles for a purchaser, the method comprising: receiving from anetwork attached computing device a purchaser financing information;determining a minimum vehicle value required to provide desired orapproved financing amount or desired or approved monthly payments basedupon financing booking requirements associated with a financialinstitution and the purchaser financing information; processing a datastore containing a vehicle repository identifying a plurality ofavailable vehicles and associated vehicle inventory information, toidentify from a plurality of available vehicles a subset of eligiblevehicles eligible for the purchaser for each vehicle having anassociated vehicle identification number (VIN) above a minimum vehiclevalue: calculating actual monthly payments for the vehicle associatedwith the respective VIN; and adding the vehicle and monthly payments tothe subset of eligible vehicles for purchase when the calculated actualmonthly payments is equal to or below the desired or approved monthlypayments; and returning the subset of eligible vehicles determined fromthe vehicle repository complying with the financing bookingrequirements.

In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure there isprovided a method executed by a computing device for determiningeligible vehicles for a purchaser, the method comprising: receivingpurchaser financing information for a customer; receiving a vehicleindicator associated with purchaser defining at least one vehicle value;determining credit conditions associated with the purchaser financinginformation from a financial institution; searching a data storecontaining a vehicle repository identifying a plurality of availablevehicles and associated vehicle inventory information using the vehicleindicator and a total amount to finance (TATF) from the creditconditions and a determined value of a respective vehicle in the vehicleinventory information; and returning a subset of eligible vehiclesdetermined from the vehicle repository complying with financing bookingrequirements for the financial institution to a computing device of thepurchaser.

In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure there isprovided a system for determining eligible vehicles for a purchasercomprising: one or more processors coupled to one or more vehicleinventory source computing devices through a network; a memory coupledto the one or more processors, the memory containing instructions to:receive from a network attached computing device purchaser financinginformation; receive a vehicle indicator associated with purchaserdefining at least one vehicle value;

determine credit conditions associated with the purchaser financinginformation from a financial institution; search a data store containinga vehicle repository identifying a plurality of available vehicles andassociated vehicle inventory information using the vehicle indicator anda total amount to finance (TATF) from the credit conditions and adetermined value of a respective vehicle in the vehicle inventoryinformation; and return a subset of eligible vehicles determined fromthe vehicle repository complying with the financing booking requirementsfor the financial institution to a computing device of the purchaser.

In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure there isprovided a non-transitory computer readable memory containinginstructions which when executed by a processor perform the method ofdetermining eligible vehicles for a purchaser, the method comprising:receiving from a network attached computing device purchaser financinginformation; receiving a vehicle indicator associated with purchaserdefining at least one vehicle value; determining credit conditionsassociated with the purchaser financing information from a financialinstitution; searching a data store containing a vehicle repositoryidentifying a plurality of available vehicles and associated vehicleinventory information using the vehicle indicator and a total amount tofinance (TATF) from the credit conditions and a determined value of arespective vehicle in the vehicle inventory information; and returning asubset of eligible vehicles determined from the vehicle repositorycomplying with the financing booking requirements for the financialinstitution to a computing device of the purchaser.

In one or more embodiments a total amount to finance (TATF) allowable isdetermined for the one or more financial institution for the purchaserbased on a determined value of a respective vehicle in the vehicleinventory information; a fixed interest rate is determined from thefinance booking requirements based on a model year of the respectivevehicle for the purchaser; a payment amount is calculated based on atleast the fixed interest rate and the determined value of the respectivevehicle for a defined term.

In one or more embodiments the vehicle is added to the subset ofeligible vehicle when the TATF is greater than or equal to thedetermined value associated with the respective vehicle and thecalculated payment amount is less than or equal to the specified paymentamount.

In one or more embodiments, the processing further comprises:determining a maximum loan term based on a condition of the vehicleassociated with the VIN, and wherein determining the payment amountcomprises determining a recurring payment amount based on the calculatedinterest rate and the maximum term.

In one or more embodiments, the maximum loan term is further based onmileage of the vehicle associated with the VIN.

In one or more embodiments, the finance booking requirements specify:possible interest rates based on a model year of a vehicle and aplurality of credit ratings; maximum recurring payments based on theplurality of credit ratings; and maximum amounts to finance based onvehicle value and the plurality of credit ratings.

In one or more embodiments, the finance booking requirements furtherspecify: an allowable backend financing amount based on vehicle value.

In one or more embodiments, the processing further comprises: for eachof the eligible vehicles for the purchaser, determining additionalfinancing amounts by: determining a backend financing amount availablefrom the finance booking requirements and the determined book valueassociated with the VIN of the respective possible vehicle; anddetermining a frontend financing amount available from a differencebetween the TATF and the purchase price associated with the VIN of therespective possible vehicle.

In one or more embodiments, the data store of respective VINs of theplurality of available vehicles and associated vehicle informationstores for each VIN: a make of the vehicle; a model of the vehicle; amodel year of the vehicle; a trim level of the vehicle; and mileage ofthe vehicle.

In one or more embodiments, the associated vehicle information furtherstores for each VIN: the determined value of the vehicle.

In one or more embodiments, the associated vehicle information furtherstores for each VIN: dealer or seller information of the vehicle.

In one or more embodiments, the determined value associated with the VINis determined from at least one networked 3rd party valuation services.

In one or more embodiments, the processing may further comprise:periodically updating the data store to add VINs of newly availablevehicles and removing unavailable vehicles; determining the book valuefor any newly added VINs from at least one more 3rd party valuationservices.

In accordance with the present disclosure there is further provided amethod for identifying vehicles comprising: receiving purchaserinformation providing an indication of at least a payment amount and acreditworthiness of the purchaser; determining financing characteristicsof vehicles required by at least one financial institution to meet theat least one payment amount given the creditworthiness of the purchaser;and identifying one or more vehicles from a collection of vehiclesavailable for purchase that meet or exceed the determined financingcharacteristics of vehicles.

In one or more embodiments, the payment amount comprises at least oneof: an approved total amount to finance; a desired total amount tofinance; an approved recurring payment; and a desired recurring payment.

In one or more embodiments, the determined financing characteristiccomprises a minimum vehicle value.

In one or more embodiments, the received purchaser information furthercomprises an indication of one or more desirable vehiclecharacteristics, and the method may further comprise filtering theidentified one or more vehicles based on the one or more desirablevehicle characteristics.

In one or more embodiments, the purchaser financing information isreceived from a financial institution.

In one or more embodiments, the purchaser financing information isreceived from a vehicle purchasing website coupled to the financialinstitution.

In one or more embodiments, the vehicle indicator is modified when avehicle is not found in the inventory.

In one or more embodiments, at least one additional vehicle inventorysources is searched when vehicle repository does not find any matchingvehicles.

When purchasing a new or used vehicle, a purchaser typically needs tofinance at least a portion of the purchase. That is, the purchaser mayrequire a loan from a financial institution to complete the purchase.The vehicle may be for example an automobile, recreational vehicles,all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles, personal watercraft, boats, trailers,motorcycles, scooters, e-bikes and any other vehicle to which financingapplies. In purchasing a vehicle, there are a number of financialconsiderations, including whether the purchaser can afford, or have beenapproved for, the loan amount, and if the financial institution willloan the required amount for the particular vehicle. Accordingly,selecting a vehicle that meets the purchaser's requirements, meets thepurchaser's financial situation, and meets a financial institution'srequirements may require various trial and error. Typically, a purchaserselects a car that matches their requirements or desires, such as themake, model, color, trim, mileage, year etc., and then it is determinedif the purchaser can afford the vehicle and if the financial institutionwill loan the required amount to the purchaser. The actual price of aselected vehicle will depend upon an amount to be financed, the interestrate for the loan, which can depend upon vehicle information as well aspurchaser information, and a loan term that may depend upon the vehiclebeing purchased. If the purchaser cannot afford the vehicle, or thefinancial institution will not loan the required amount to thepurchaser, the selection process must be started over, requiring thepurchaser to select another possible vehicle. In determining whether thefinancial institution will loan the required amount, the vehicleinformation may be input into a program or portal of the financialinstitution that will provide an indication of the acceptance orrejection of the vehicle loan.

As described further herein, it may be possible to maintain informationof available vehicles for purchase and information on financialinstitutions. The vehicle information may be processed in order toidentify vehicles that the purchaser can afford.

Accordingly, it is possible to determine a list of potential vehiclesthat meet the requirements of both the purchaser and the financialinstitution.

A financial institution may agree to loan a purchaser a certain amountto purchase a vehicle. The total amount the financial institution may bewilling to lend a purchaser may be based on a determined creditworthiness of the purchaser. Also, the terms and conditions of the loanmay be determined at least in part on the credit worthiness of thepurchaser. The actual amount a financial institution will lend to thepurchaser may be less than the total amount the financial institution iswilling to lend. The actual amount may be based on a determined value ofthe particular vehicle to be purchased. For example, a financialinstitution may approve a purchaser for a $20,000.00 loan to purchase avehicle. However, the financial institution will not provide the totalloan amount in order to purchase a vehicle that has a determined valueof $5,000.00. Further, the terms and conditions that determine theactual cost of the loan, for example the interest rate, may be based onboth the credit worthiness of the purchaser as well as details of theparticular vehicle being purchased, such as a model year of the vehicle.

The systems, methods and apparatuses described further herein determinesthe vehicles that satisfy the various criteria of both the financialinstitution and the purchaser. The potential vehicles, which have beendetermined to meet the financial institution's and the purchaser'srequirements may be presented to the purchaser, which simplifies thevehicle purchase process by eliminating from consideration thosevehicles that either do not suit the purchaser or which do not meet thefinancial institution's requirements for providing the loan.

FIG. 1 depicts a system for identifying vehicles for a purchaser. Thesystem 100 comprises a number of interacting computing devices. Broadly,the system includes one or more sources of vehicle inventoryinformation, one or more sources for determining a value of a vehicle,one or more sources for financing information and a computing deviceimplementing vehicle selection functionality that retrieves, processesand combines information from the various sources in order to presentone or more eligible vehicles that meet selection criteria for both thepurchaser and financing institution.

The vehicle selection functionality may be provided by a computingdevice, such as a server, connected to a network. As depicted, thevehicle selection functionality server 108 may be connected directly orindirectly to the Internet 110. The vehicle selection functionalityserver 108 may be connected to an intranet 114 or other network, whichin turn may access the Internet 110 through one or more networkappliances, such as a firewall 112. The vehicle selection functionalitymay be provided as a service available to multiple companies, businessesor services for selling vehicles. For example, a car dealership mayprovide the vehicle selection functionality to its employees andcustomers. In such a scenario, the vehicle selection functionalityserver 108 may be hosted on an internal network, or intranet 114, of thedealership. The vehicle selection functionality server 108 may retrieveinformation regarding vehicle inventory containing current vehicles forsale, from a local source 116 available on the dealership's intranet114. For example, the dealership may track the available vehicleinventory in a database, spreadsheet, tabular or other data structurethat can be accessed by the vehicle selection functionality server 108.One or more client computers 118 connected to the intranet 114 can beused to interact with the vehicle selection functionality server 108 anddetermine eligible vehicles for a purchaser. Additionally oralternatively, one or more client computers 120 connected to theInternet, either directly or indirectly, may be used to interact withthe vehicle selection functionality server 108 and determine eligiblevehicles for a purchaser.

In addition to, or as an alternative to, providing the vehicle selectionfunctionality to a single dealership location, the functionality may beprovided to multiple dealership locations. For example, a dealership, ordealer network may have multiple locations. The vehicle selectionfunctionality server may receive vehicle inventory information for thedifferent locations. Accordingly, the vehicle selection functionalitymay determine eligible vehicles from a larger pool of vehicle inventory.

Further still, the vehicle selection functionality may be provided as aservice to one or more dealerships, or one or more sources of vehiclesfor sale in order to facilitate a purchaser identifying vehicles theyare eligible to purchase.

The vehicle selection functionality server 108 may access one or moresources of vehicle inventory. The vehicle inventory sources may belocated locally on the same network the vehicle functionality server 108is connected to, or may be located externally on one or morecommunicatively coupled networks. For example, FIG. 1 depicts vehicleinventory sources 102 a, 102 b . . . 102 n as being communicativelycoupled to the vehicle selection functionality server 108. The vehicleinventory sources 102 a, 102 b, . . . 102 n may include inventorysources from one or more dealerships, one or more locations ofdealerships, vehicle selling collections such as AutoTrader®, and/orvehicle classifieds. Additionally, or alternatively, the vehicleselection functionality server 108 may maintain vehicle inventoryinformation, for example retrieved from one or more of the vehicleinventory sources 116, 102 a, 102 b, 102 n, or input directly from oneor more client computers 120, 118. The vehicle selection functionalityserver 108 may aggregate vehicle information of vehicles available forpurchase into a local repository such as database 122 of availablevehicles. The vehicle selection functionality server 108 mayperiodically, such as hourly, daily, etc., update the repository 122 ofavailable vehicles in order to remove vehicles that have been sold andadd any new vehicles for sale.

Regardless of how the vehicle inventory sources are provided, eachprovides information on a vehicle that is for sale. The vehicleinformation includes a unique Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) thatcan be used to uniquely identify the vehicle for sale. The vehicleinformation may further include other vehicle information such as themake, model, year, trim level, color, and other options or extras. Thevehicle information may further include information such as the vehiclecondition and mileage. The vehicle information may further include thepurchase price of the vehicle. Certain vehicle information, such as themake, model, year trim level, color, and other options or extras may beassociated with the VIN through one or more vehicle information sources,separate from the vehicle inventory source. Accordingly, the vehicleinformation may be aggregated from multiple information sources.

In order to determine if a purchaser is eligible to purchase aparticular vehicle, the vehicle selection functionality determines ifthe purchaser will be able to finance the required amount from afinancial institution. As described further below, financialinstitutions determine an amount they are able to loan to a purchaserbased in part on an estimated value of the vehicle, which may not be thesame as the purchase price of the vehicle. Accordingly, the vehicleselection functionality server 108 may be communicatively coupled to oneor more computing devices or storage devices that provide a value for aparticular vehicle from vehicle value providers 104 a, 104 b, 104 n. Thevehicle value providers 104 a, 104 b, 104 n may provide a networkaccessible service that receives a VIN, and possibly other informationsuch as the mileage and/or condition and provides a value of thevehicle. If no mileage and/or condition is provided, a number of values,or ranges of values, may be provided for different mileages and/orconditions. The vehicle value providers 104 a, 104 b, 104 n may includefor example one or more of: Black Book™, Blue Book™, Gold Book™, VMRCanada™, NADA Guides™ or other sources for providing estimated values ofvehicles.

In determining if a vehicle is eligible for a purchaser, the vehicleselection criteria server 108 determines if a financial institution willloan the purchaser the required amount to purchase the vehicle. In orderto determine if the vehicle is eligible, the vehicle selectionfunctionality utilizes financial institution information 106 a, 106 b,106 n for one or more financial institutions that provides the bookingrequirements and other financial information. For example, the totalamount to finance (TATF), or the vehicle purchase price, may be set byfinancial institutions based as a percentage of the vehicle value. Forexample, a financial institution may be willing to loan up to 140% ofthe vehicle value to a purchaser. Further, the TATF may also be based ona credit worthiness of the purchaser. For example, a first purchaserwith relatively good credit may be loaned up to 140% while a secondpurchaser with relatively poor credit may only be loaned up to 120% ofthe vehicle value. The booking requirements may also provide informationon interest rates available. For example, the interest rate offered onthe loan may change depending upon the model year of the vehicle beingpurchased. Further, the interest rate offered may also vary based on thecreditworthiness of the purchaser. The booking requirements may alsocomprise information on the maximum term of the loan. The maximum termof the loan may vary based on the model tear of the vehicle, the mileageof the vehicle and/or the condition of the vehicle.

The booking requirements may be provided as one or more tables or datastructures that specify the various information. Each financialinstitution provides equivalent information, although the specificvalues and/or names may vary. Illustrative tables for a single financialinstitution specifying the financial booking requirements are depictedbelow.

TABLE 1 Table of interest rates based on creditworthiness and vehiclemodel year Model Credit Credit Credit Credit Year Group 1 Group 2 Group3 Group 4 2013-2014 10.9% 14.5% 19.5% 23.5% 2012 13.9% 16.5% 20.5% 24.5%2011 13.9% 16.5% 21.5% 25.5% 2010 14.9% 17.5% 22.5% 26.5 2009 14.9%17.5% 23.5% 27.5% 2008 15.9% 18.5% 24.5% 28.5%

TABLE 2 Table of maximum monthly payments and used car advance based oncreditworthiness Credit Credit Credit Credit Group 1 Group 2 Group 3Group 4 Maximum Monthly $700.00 $700.00 $600.00 $500.00 Payment Used CarAdvance 140% 140% 130% 120% Based on Vehicle Value Backend Advances  40% 40%  40%  40%

TABLE 3 Table showing maximum allowable terms based on year andcondition/mileage of vehicle Max Extra Max Max Max Year Term Clean TermClean Term Average Term Rough 2013 84 5,001-25,000    84 25,001-50,00072 50,001-80,000 66  80,001-100,000 Used 2012 84 0-50,000 7250,001-80,000 66 80,004-120,00 60 120,001-180,000 2011 72 0-60,000 7260,001-96,000 66  96,001-140,000 60 140,001-180,000 2010 72 0-72,000 7272,001-96,000 66  96,001-140,000 54 140,001-180,000 2009 72 0-84,000 72 84,001-125,000 60 125,001-160,000 48 160,001-180,00  2008 68 0-90,00066  90,001-130,000 60 130,001-160,000 48 160,001-180,000 2007 60 0-100,000 60 100,001-130,000 54 130,001-160,000 48 160,001-180,000 2006No Book Value 48     0-140,000 48 140,001-160,000 42 160,001-180,0002005 No Book Value 36     0-140,000 36 140,001-160,000 36160,001-180,000 2004 No Book Value 24     0-140,000 24 140,001-160,00024 160,001-180,000 2003 No Book Value 12     0-140,000 12140,001-160,000 12 160,001-180,000

In determining if a vehicle is eligible to be purchased by a purchaser,the vehicle selection functionality determines the value of the vehiclefrom at least one of the value providers 104 a, 104 b, 104 c using thevehicle information associated with the VIN. The vehicle value is usedto determine the total amount to finance (TATF), which may include boththe vehicle purchase price, including any additional options, servicesor packages, referred to as frontend allowances and any warranties,insurance or other options, referred to as backend allowances. The TATFmay also include applicable taxes. From the table 2 above, assuming avehicle value of $10,000 the financial institution will provide a loanto a purchaser, with a credit rating that places them in the Group 1 ofcredit, in the amount of $18,000 plus taxes. This total amount isdetermined as the 140% allowance for the frontend vehicle cost as wellas the 40% allowance for the backend vehicle cost.

Once the allowable TATF is determined for the vehicle and purchaser, thevehicle selection functionality server 102 determines the actual vehiclecosts based on the purchase price of the vehicle, the interest rate, andloan term as determined from the booking requirements of the financialinstitution, the particular vehicle information and creditworthiness ofthe purchaser. Assuming the vehicle is a 2010, the interest rate for thepurchaser is 14.9%, since the purchaser is in the Credit Group 1.Further, assuming the vehicle has 155,000 km, or is classified as in‘Rough’ condition, the maximum term for the loan will be 54 months. Thetotal amount to finance may then be determined based on the aboveinformation. Although not described above, the total amount to financemay take into account any trade-in value, outstanding liens on thetraded-in vehicle and down payment. Further, in determining a TATF, anassumed amount of backend costs may be specified. For example, whendetermining eligible vehicles, it may be possible to specify to includea backend cost. The backend cost may be specified as a fixed dollaramount ranging from $0.00 to a maximum amount, or may be specified as apercentage ranging from 0.00% to a maximum percentage, which may be thebackend allowance provided by the financial institution, for example40%.

Once the payment information is calculated, the required recurringpayments, for example monthly payments, will be known. The vehicleselection functionality may compare the required monthly payments to themaximum allowable monthly payments specified by the financialinstitution, as well as a preferred monthly payment amount for thepurchaser. If the vehicle meets the selection criteria, that is it meetsthe financial institution's booking requirements for loaning the moneyand the purchaser's requirements for purchasing the car, for example theprice, color make, model, type of vehicle etc, the vehicle may be markedas an eligible vehicle for the purchaser. The vehicle selection criteriamay process the entire data store of available inventory in order toidentify all vehicles meeting the selection criteria. That is, thevehicle selection functionality will identify all available vehiclesthat the purchaser is interested in, and that the purchaser can affordby receiving financing from one of the financial institutions.

Once the eligible vehicles have been determined, they may be returnedfor presentation. The eligible vehicles may be presented to thepurchaser, an agent for the purchaser, a sales associate or other personlooking into vehicles. The eligible vehicles may be presented in a webpage, an application, mobile app, in an email, or other type ofelectronic communication.

FIG. 2 depicts a process for identifying vehicles. The process 200depicted in FIG. 200 depicts illustrative interactions between variouscomponents of a system. The process may be carried out by a system suchas that described above with regard to FIG. 1. For example, thefinancial institution 202 may be the financial institution providing thefinancial institution information 106 a, 106 b, 106 n. The 3rd partyvaluation 204 may be provided by one or more of the vehicle valueproviders 104 a, 104 b, 104 n. The inventory sources 206 may be providedby one or more of the vehicle inventory sources 102 a, 102 b, 102 n,116. The client 208 may be provided by one or more computing devicessuch as computers 118, 120. The vehicle selection/web server 210 may beprovided by the vehicle selection functionality server 108. The vehicleselection data store 212 may be provided by the data repository 122. Asdepicted in FIG. 2, the process 200 comprises two portions 214 a, 214 b.The first portion 214 a involves configuring the vehicle selection/webserver 210. The configuration 214 a sets the various configurations,settings, variables, and parameters for the operation of the vehicleselection/web server 210. The configuration process 214 a may beperformed once when the vehicle selection/web server is initiallyconfigured. Additionally, the configuration process 214 a, or partsthereof may be periodically performed, for example to change operatingparameters, add and/or remove users or other configuration settings andperform other maintenance such as upgrading or updating components ofthe vehicle selection/web server 210.

The other portion 214 b of the process 200 is the normal operation ofthe vehicle selection/web server 210. During normal operation, thevehicle selection/web server may periodically, for example, hourly ordaily, update vehicle information as process any requests or commandsfor identifying vehicles for a purchaser.

Turning to the configuration portion 214 a of the process, a user, suchas an administrator of the vehicle selection/web server 210, uses aclient 208 to log into the vehicle selection/web server (216). The loginmay authenticate and authorize a user name/password of the user toverify that the user is authorized to configure the vehicleselection/web server 210. Once the user is logged in, the vehicleselection/web server 210 may present the user with a user interface forconfiguring the system. The user may configure the financial institutioninformation (218). If the financial institutions provide network basedaccess to their loan guidelines, the configuration may includeconfiguring such access, including providing locations for retrievingthe loan guidelines, or financial institution's loan bookingrequirements as well as credentials for logging into the service. If oneor more of the financial institutions provide network based access, theloan guidelines can be retrieved (220). If the financial institutions donot provide network based access to their loan guidelines, theconfiguration may include inputting the loan guidelines from the client208. Once the loan guidelines are received, they can be stored forsubsequent use by the vehicle selection/web server 210. Although notdepicted in FIG. 2 for simplicity, the loan guidelines, or financialinstitution's booking requirements for each financial institution may bestored in the vehicle selection data store 212, or may be stored inother storage accessible by the vehicle selection/web server 210.

In addition to configuring the financial institution information, theconfiguration process 214 a may also configure the 3rd party valuationsources (222). The configuration of the 3^(rd) party valuation sourcesmay include specifying one or more valuation services to use, uniformresource indicators (URIs) where the valuation services are accessed aswell as credentials, if required, for accessing the 3rd party valuationservices. Again, although not depicted in FIG. 2, the configuration ofthe 3rd party valuation services may be stored in the vehicle selectiondata store 212, or may be stored in other storage accessible by thevehicle selection/web server 210.

The configuration process 214 a also includes the configuration ofinventory sources 206. Configuring the inventory sources (224) mayinclude specifying one or more inventory sources to use, uniformresource indicators (URIs) where the inventory information is accessedfrom, as well as credentials, if required, for accessing the inventoryinformation. Again, although not depicted in FIG. 2, the configurationof the inventory sources may be stored in the vehicle selection datastore 212, or may be stored in other storage accessible by the vehicleselection/web server 210. Once one or more inventory sources have beenconfigured (224), the vehicle information is loaded from the inventorysources (226) and stored to the vehicle selection data store (228). Theconfiguration 214 a may also include retrieving the value, values orrange of values, for each of the available vehicles (230) using theconfigured 3rd party valuation services 204 and store the values in thevehicle selection data store (232).

Turning to the operation portion 214 b of the process 200, the vehicleselection/web server 210 periodically updates the available vehicles forpurchase from the configured inventory sources (234), and stores theupdated inventory information to the data store (236). The values ofupdated vehicles may be retrieved (238) and stored (240) in the datastore 212. The available vehicle inventory and values may be updatedperiodically in a batch type process in order to remove all vehiclesthat are no longer available, as well as to add newly availablevehicles. Additionally or alternatively, the available vehicle inventoryinformation may be updated by receiving at the vehicle selection/webserver an indication of one or more available vehicles that have beensold, or an indication of one or more vehicles to be added. Regardlessof how the vehicle inventory information is updated, it is repeatedlyupdated (242) in order to maintain the available vehicles information upto date. The updates may be schedules to be performed at times of lowuse of the vehicle selection/web server, such as overnight.

In addition to maintaining the available vehicle information up to date,the operation portion 214 b also allows a user to interact with thevehicle selection/web server 210 in order to identify one or moreeligible vehicles for a purchaser. The user may be, for example apurchaser of the vehicle, an agent for the purchaser, a sales associateof dealership or other person interested in identifying a vehicle. Theuser may login (244) to the vehicle selection/web server 210. The loginmay require authentication and/or authorization of the user.Alternatively, the vehicle selection/web server 210 may be accessiblewithout requiring authorization and/or authentication. Regardless of ifauthentication/authorization is required, once logged in, the vehicleselection/web server 210 provides a user interface, for example a webpage, to the client 208 of the user. The user interface allows the userto provide purchaser information (246) to the vehicle selection/webserver 210. The purchaser information may specify a credit worthiness ofthe purchaser, an approved monthly payment for which the purchaser hasbeen approved by a financial institution, a desired monthly paymentrange, desired vehicle information, a down payment amount, an existingvehicle trade-in value, and an existing vehicle lien amount. Thepurchaser information is used to retrieve relevant financing information(248), which is used in processing the available vehicles (250) toidentify eligible vehicles for the purchaser. The vehicle selection/webserver 210 processes (250) each of the available vehicles (252) storedin the data store. The processing includes determining if the vehiclemeets selection criteria, including booking requirements of thefinancial institution and the purchaser requirements. Each vehicle thatmeets the selection criteria may be marked as an eligible vehicle.Alternatively, each vehicle that meets the booking requirements of thefinancial institutions may be marked as an eligible vehicle and thepurchaser requirements may be used to filter the eligible vehicles. Oncethe vehicles have been processed, the eligible vehicles may be returnedto the client (254). The client may present a user interface to the userthat displays the eligible vehicles and allows the user to select one ormore of the vehicles, for example to display details of the vehicle. Thevehicle selection/web server 210 may receive a vehicle selection (256)from the client and may retrieve the details of the selected vehicle(258) and return them to the client (260) for presentation. The userinterface presented to the user on the client may allow otherfunctionality to be performed, for example, selecting one or more of thevehicles, changing a display order of the eligible vehicles, removingvehicles from the list of eligible vehicles, printing a list of eligiblevehicles and/or emailing a list of eligible vehicles. The user interfacecan provide a command, which is received at the vehicle selection/webserver (262), processed (264) and the results returned to the client(266).

FIG. 3 depicts an illustrative display for identifying vehicles for apurchaser. The display is depicted as a web page 300 presented within aweb browser. It will be appreciated that other user interfaces arepossible, such as a mobile application, or desktop application. The webpage 300 allows purchaser information to be input and provided to thevehicle selection/web server 210 described above and the determinedeligible vehicles to be presented. The interface includes a portion 302for entering the purchaser information. The portion 302 may include anelement 304 for specifying an approved month payment amount. This amountmay be an amount the purchaser has already been approved for by afinancial institution. Alternatively, this amount may be determined fromthe financial booking requirements, which specifies a maximum monthlypayment amount based on a credit group for the creditworthiness of thepurchaser. The interface may further provide selection of financialinstitutions that purchaser may be approved by. The interface may alsoprovide an element 306 for specifying creditworthiness of the purchaser.The element 306 may be provided as a drop-down menu displaying theavailable credit groupings of one or more financial institutions. Theinterface may also include an element 308 to allow a user to specifyvehicle preferences of the purchaser, such as the vehicle class.Although depicted as only specifying the class of the vehicle, the userinterface may also specify other desired characteristics, includingmake, model, year, mileage, condition, options, color etc.

The interface may also include elements 310, 316 for specifying adesired minimum monthly payment and maximum monthly payment of thepurchaser. The interface may further include an element 312 forspecifying a down payment amount, an element 318 for specifying a valueof a trade-in vehicle, and an element 320 for specifying a value of anoutstanding amount of a lien on the vehicle being traded in.Additionally, the interface may further include an element 314 forspecifying a geographic location in which the vehicle should be located.A search button or other element 322 may be included in order toinitiate the search for identifying eligible vehicles based on thespecified purchaser financing information.

Once the search for eligible vehicles has been performed by the vehicleselection/web server 210, the results may be returned and presented. Asdepicted, the results 324, 326, 328, 330 may be presented as a table ofvehicle information. Each of the results 324, 326, 328, 330 may specifyvehicle information for each of the eligible vehicles. The results maybe arranged by different columns of the table.

A number of the results may be selected and an action performed on theselected results. For example, a list of selected results may be saved332, or a report generated 334, or the selected results may be emailedto the purchaser 336. When emailing the results to the purchaser, theactual results may be included in the email, or a reference to theresults stored at the vehicle selection/web server may be provided.

The above interface 300 is illustrative only. Various interfaces forspecifying purchaser information and displaying results of eligiblevehicles are possible. Elements within the interface may be positionedat different location and additional fields may be provided forreceiving input from the user.

FIG. 4 depicts a method for identifying vehicles for a purchaser. Themethod may be used in identifying eligible vehicles for a purchaser froma pool of available vehicles.

The method 400 may be implemented in the system 100 described above, andin particular in the vehicle selection functionality server 108 orvehicle selection/web server 212.

The method 400 receives purchaser financing information (402). Thereceived purchaser financing information 426 is used in determiningeligible vehicles for the purchaser. The purchaser financing information426 includes an indication of a creditworthiness of the purchaser. Thecreditworthiness of the purchaser may be expressed as one of a pluralityof credit groupings a financial institution uses.

Additionally or alternatively, the creditworthiness may be expressed asone or more financial attributes that can be used to determine which ofthe one or more credit groupings of the financial institutions thepurchaser falls in. The credit groupings of the financial institutionsmay be expressed in various ways, such as credit rating stars, keys orother groupings. The purchaser financing information 426 may includeadditional information including approved loan amounts, including anapproved total amount and/or an approved monthly payment amount.Alternatively, this information may be determined based on the financialinstitution's booking requirements and the creditworthiness of thepurchaser. The purchaser financing information may include desiredfinancing information of the purchaser, such as a desired monthlypayment range. The purchaser financing information may also include, forexample desired vehicle information such as vehicle type, make, model,year, color, location etc. The desired purchaser information, such asdesired monthly payments or desired vehicle characteristics may be usedto filter eligible vehicles. Alternatively, if there are no results, orless than a results threshold, after filtering the eligible vehiclesusing the desired purchaser information, the desired information may beignored or adjusted in order to provide more results of eligiblevehicles.

Once the purchaser financing information is received, finance bookingrequirements for one or more financial institutions is retrieved (404).The finance booking requirements 428 may provides the information ondetermining the total amount to finance (TATF), the interest rates, andloan term, as well as any additional conditions a financing institutionmay require. The booking requirements may be specified as one or moretables, such as Tables 1-3, or other data structures that specify therequired information.

Once the finance booking requirements for one or more financialinstitutions is retrieved, each vehicle, or VIN, of the availablevehicles is processed (406). The processing of each VIN determines atotal amount to finance based on a vehicle value associated with the VIN(408). The vehicle value may be stored in a data store and periodicallyupdated from one or more vehicle value providers. Additionally oralternatively, the vehicle value may be retrieved from one or more 3rdparty vehicle value providers. The TATF may determined as a percentageof the vehicle value. The particular percentage may be dependent uponthe financial institution providing the financing. Further, eachfinancial institution may provide a different percentage based on thecredit worthiness of the purchaser. For example, as depicted above inTable 2, a financial institution may advance up to 140% of the vehiclesvalue for the frontend cost of the vehicle for purchaser havingcreditworthiness in the Credit Group 1. The method 400 may perform acheck to determine if the TATF is greater than or equal to the requiredfinancing amount (410). The required financing amount may be the amountof money required by the purchaser to be financed. The requiredfinancing amount may be determined from the purchase price of thevehicle, any down payments provided by the purchaser, any trade-invalues and any outstanding liens on the vehicles being traded in. If theTATF that is the amount of money the financial institution is willing toloan to the purchaser based on the vehicle value is less than the amountof money required by the purchaser to buy the vehicle (No at 410), thevehicle is too expensive for the purchaser and the next vehicle or VINis processed (422). If however the TATF is greater than or equal to therequired financing amount (Yes at 410), the method determines aninterest rate for the loan (412). The interest rate may be determinedfrom the finance booking requirements of the financial institution. Asdepicted in Table 1 described above, the interest rate may depend uponthe creditworthiness of the purchaser and the model year of the vehicle.The method also determines a maximum loan term (414). The maximum loanterm may be determined from the finance booking requirements of thefinancial institution. As depicted in Table 3 above, the maximum loanterm may be determined based on the year of the vehicle and thecondition and/or mileage of the vehicle. Alternatively, the maximum loanterm may be provided by the user as a desired loan term. However,specifying the maximum loan term may result in a shorter loan term, andas such higher monthly payments, resulting in few eligible vehicles.

Once the interest rate and loan term are determined, the requiredmonthly payments can be determined (416). The monthly payments may bedetermined based on the frontend value of the vehicle, a backend valueof the vehicle, down payments, trade-ins and outstanding liens. Asdescribed above, financial institutions may allow a total amount tofinance based on a value of the vehicle, as well as additional backendfinancing amount, which is also based on the value of the vehicle. Forexample, the backend financing amount may be 40% of the vehicle value.The total cost of the vehicle may be determined as:Cost=Frontend+Backend+outstanding liens−trade in +taxes−down paymentWhere:

-   -   Frontend is the purchase price plus the cost of any extras minus        any discounts;    -   Backend is the cost of any warranty and insurance or other        products or services considered under the backend costs by the        financial institution;    -   Outstanding liens is the value of any outstanding liens on        trade-in vehicles; Down payment is the down payment amount        provided by the purchaser;    -   Trade in is the trade in value of any vehicles being trade in;        and    -   Taxes is the amount of taxes required to be paid for the        purchase.

Using the total cost, interest rate and loan term, the monthly paymentamount is determined (416), and checked to determine if the monthlypayment amount is less than the monthly payment amount allowed by thefinancial institution (418). The monthly payment amount allowed by thefinancial institution may be determined from the finance bookingrequirements and may be based on the creditworthiness of the purchaser.If the required monthly payment is greater than the allowable paymentamount of the financial institution (No at 418), the vehicle is tooexpensive for the purchaser and the next vehicle or VIN is processed(422). If the required monthly payment is less than or equal to theallowable payment amount of the financial institution (Yes at 418), thevehicle is eligible for purchase by the purchaser and the VIN, and/orvehicle information, is added to a list of eligible vehicles for thepurchaser (420) and the next VIN or vehicle processed (422). Althoughdescribed as being added to a list of eligible vehicles, the eligiblevehicles for a purchaser may be marked in other ways. Once all of theVINs have been processed, the eligible vehicles are returned.

The eligible vehicles may be presented to the user as described above.It may be possible to display vehicle details of one or more of theeligible vehicles. Further, it may be possible to display the financingdetails for one or more vehicles. When displaying the financing details,it may be possible to display additional amounts that are available tobe added to both the frontend and backend, while still maintaining theaffordability of the vehicle for the purchaser. The additional frontendamount may be determined as the additional amount of frontend value thatcan be added, up to the TATF determined based on the vehicle value,while still maintain the monthly payments within the allowable range.Similarly, the additional backend amount may be determined as theadditional amount of backend value that can be added, to a maximumdetermined based on the vehicle value, for example up to a maximum of40% of the vehicle value, while still maintain the monthly paymentswithin the allowable range.

Although the above has described a method for identifying eligiblevehicles, it may be possible to identify eligible vehicles in otherways. As described further below, the vehicle selection functionalitymay determine minimum vehicle values required to meet the amount tofinance requirements based on provided purchaser information. A numberof minimum vehicle values may be determined for given vehicle years andcondition and/or mileage. The determined minimum vehicle values may beused to search available vehicle inventory to find units equal to orgreater than that amount and then calculate the actual monthly and/orbiweekly payments based on the financing institution's criteria.

FIG. 5 depicts a further method for identifying vehicles for apurchaser. The method 500 is similar to that described above, howeverminimum vehicle value is determined and used to check to see if thevehicle meets the minimum vehicle value requirement. The minimum vehiclevalue may be determined based on a total amount to finance. For example,the total amount to finance may be 140% of the vehicle value. The totalamount to finance may be specified or may be determined from an approvedmonthly payment amount, or a desired monthly payment amount.

For a particular desired monthly payment amount, the total amount tofinance may depend upon the interest rate and term of the loan. Asdescribed above, the interest rate may depend upon the creditworthinessof the purchaser as well as a model year of the vehicle. The loan termmay depend upon the model year and the condition and/or mileage of thevehicle. The vehicle information is not known until a particular vehicleis considered. Accordingly, if the payment amount is provided as adesired monthly payment, or approved monthly payment, a number ofdifferent minimum vehicle values may be determined for the differentpossible model years and vehicle condition.

The method 500 receives purchaser financing information, which mayspecify a creditworthiness of the purchaser as well as an approved ordesired financing amount and/or monthly payment amount (502). A minimumvehicle value is determined (504) that will provide the financing amountbased on the specified financing amount. Additionally or alternatively,a number of minimum vehicle values for different years and conditions ofvehicles may be determined. Once the minimum vehicle value isdetermined, it is used to filter the available vehicle inventory. Foreach VIN (506), it is determined if the vehicle value is greater than orequal to the appropriate minim vehicle value (508). The appropriateminimum vehicle value is the vehicle value determined for the vehicleyear and condition associated with the vehicle under consideration. Ifthe vehicle value is greater than the minimum vehicle value (Yes at508), the actual monthly and/or biweekly payments, or other paymentschedule, are determined (510) according to the financial institution'srequirements and the vehicle added to a list of eligible vehicles, alongwith the determined monthly amount (512). The method may also determineif the actual monthly and/or biweekly payments are within the desiredrange and only add those vehicles that are within the desired range tothe list. Once the vehicle is added to the list, or if the vehicle valuewas less than the minimum vehicle amount (No at 508), the next VIN (514)is processed. Once all of the VINs have been processed the eligiblevehicles may be returned (516) along with the calculated monthly and/orbiweekly payments.

The above has described various processes for identifying vehicles thatare eligible for the required financing of the purchaser and that meetthe desired characteristics of the purchaser. It is possible that thedesired characteristics of the purchaser result in no eligible vehicles,or in a limited number of eligible vehicles. In order to provideadditional eligible vehicles to a purchaser, even though they may notmatch the desired vehicle characteristics, the eligible vehicles may bedetermined based on the financing requirements that is all of thevehicles that the purchaser can afford according to the financialinstitution are identified as eligible vehicles. The desired vehiclecharacteristics may be used to sort and/or filter the eligible vehicles.If the desired vehicle characteristics are too restrictive, one or moreof the characteristics can be broadened or removed and the eligiblevehicles sorted and/or filtered again according to the newcharacteristics.

Although the above has described using the VIN in order to determine avalue of a vehicle, it is possible to determine a vehicle value evenwhen the VIN is not available. In such scenarios, the vehicle value maybe determined by its year, make, model, trim and add-ons, such as asunroof and/or deducts, such as no air condition, as well as itsmileage, which may determine what condition category the vehicle fallsinto. Further, the processing of vehicles may use additional oralternative identifiers for identifying the vehicle. For example, theprocessing of vehicles from the data store may utilize an internallyunique identifier that identifies the vehicle record within the datastore.

FIG. 6 depicts illustrative data used in identifying vehicles. The dataincludes booking requirements 602, purchaser financing information 604,available vehicle information 606 and eligible vehicle information 610.As depicted, the booking requirements 602, purchaser financinginformation 604, and the available vehicle information is processed 608in order to produce the eligible vehicle information 610.

The booking requirement information may include, for example, afinancial institution identifier 612 identifying the particularfinancial institution; an indication of how the financial institutioncalculates the total amount to finance 614, for example as a particularpercentage of the vehicle value determined on the creditworthiness ofthe purchaser. The booking requirement information may further comprisean indication of how the financial institution determines the interestrate 616, for example based on a model year of a vehicle and thecreditworthiness of the purchaser. The booking requirement informationmay further comprise an indication of how the financial institutiondetermines the maximum loan term 618 for example based on a model yearof the vehicle and the vehicle's condition and/or mileage. The bookingrequirement information may further comprise an indication of furtherconditions the financial institution has on providing loans topurchasers.

The purchaser financing information 604 may include, for example, acustomer ID 622, a credit rating or other indication of thecreditworthiness of the purchaser 624, approved payment amounts 626which may include a total amount of financing the customer has beenapproved for and/or monthly payment amounts the customer has beenapproved for, desired payment amounts 628, which may include a desiredtotal amount to finance and/or a desired monthly payment ranges. Thepurchaser financing information 604 may further include desired vehicleinformation providing an indication of a purchaser's preferred vehiclecharacteristics 630.

The available vehicle information 606 may be maintained to reflect thecurrently available inventory. The available vehicle information mayinclude a VIN 632, vehicle details 636 such as the make, model, year,color, mileage, condition, options and extras, photos, notes etc. Theavailable vehicle information may further include a value 636 asdetermined from one or more 3rd party vehicle value providers, and anasking or purchase price 638.

The eligible vehicle information 610 may include, for example, a VIN640, total amount to finance 642, an indication of the monthly payment644, and an indication of the available backend allowance 646 as well asan indication of the available frontend allowance 648.

FIG. 7 depicts various apparatuses for use identifying vehicles for apurchaser. As depicted, a number of computing apparatuses 702, 716, 730,746 may be communicatively coupled by one or more networks 760. Thecomputing apparatuses may be provided by individual systems or providedby one or more computing devices that are co-located, distributed orcloud-based service providers. The computing apparatus 702, may be a 3rdparty valuation computing apparatus. The computing apparatus 716, may becomputing apparatus that provides information on available vehicleinventory. The computing apparatus 730, may be computing apparatus thatprovides the described vehicle selection functionality described herein.The computing apparatus 746, may be a client computing apparatus.

The computing apparatus 702 may comprise a central processing unit (CPU)704, a memory 706 for storing instructions 708 and non-volatile storage710. The computing apparatus 702 may further comprise one or moreinput/output I/O interfaces 712 for connecting input and/or outputdevices to the computing apparatus. For example, and I/O device may be anetwork interface for connecting the computing apparatus 702 to thenetwork 760. The instructions 708 when executed by the CPU 704 mayconfigure the computing apparatus to provide 3rd party valuationfunctionality 714. The 3rd party valuation functionality 714 may receivea VIN number and/or vehicle identifying information and return a valueof the vehicle.

The computing apparatus 716 may comprise a central processing unit (CPU)718, a memory 720 for storing instructions 722 and non-volatile storage724. The computing apparatus 716 may further comprise one or moreinput/output I/O interfaces 726 for connecting input and/or outputdevices to the computing apparatus. For example, and I/O device may be anetwork interface for connecting the computing apparatus 716 to thenetwork 760. The instructions 722 when executed by the CPU 718 mayconfigure the computing apparatus to provide VIN inventory managementfunctionality 728. The VIN inventory management functionality 728 mayallow tracking of available vehicle information of vehicles that are forsale. The VIN inventory management functionality 728 may also includefunctionality for providing the inventory information to requestingcomputer apparatuses.

The computing apparatus 730 may comprise a central processing unit 732,a memory 734 for storing instructions 736 and non-volatile storage 738.The computing apparatus 730 may further comprise one or moreinput/output I/O interfaces 740 for connecting input and/or outputdevices to the computing apparatus. For example, and I/O device may be anetwork interface for connecting the computing apparatus 730 to thenetwork 760. The instructions 736 when executed by the CPU 732 mayconfigure the computing apparatus to provide the vehicle selectionfunctionality 742 described herein. The executed instructions mayfurther provide web server functionality 744.

The computing apparatus 746 may comprise a central processing unit 748,a memory 750 for storing instructions 752 and non-volatile storage 754.The computing apparatus 746 may further comprise one or moreinput/output I/O interfaces 756 for connecting input and/or outputdevices to the computing apparatus. For example, and I/O device may be anetwork interface for connecting the computing apparatus 746 to thenetwork 760. The instructions 752 when executed by the CPU 748 mayconfigure the computing apparatus to provide web browser functionality758, or other client functionality for interacting with the vehicleselection functionality.

FIG. 8 depicts a further method for identifying vehicles for apurchaser/customer with financing pre-approval or pre-qualifying forfinancing. The method 800 is similar to the methods described above,however the purchaser can receive pre-approval prior to car selectiondirectly through a financial institution or on-line vehicle purchasingwebsite coupled to a financial institution. The purchaser may access aweb-portal of the vehicle purchasing website or the financialinstitution to provide financial details to receive pre-approval by thefinancial institution by providing or accessing credit information(802). In addition to the credit information a vehicle indicator isreceived (804) which defines a value either associated with a vehicle, aspecific type of vehicle, or price range of vehicles which the purchaserwould like to consider purchasing. For example the indicator may definea specific price point, age of vehicle, general classification of thevehicle (e.g. Mini, Economy, Compact, Mid-Size, Full Size, Hybrid,Electric etc., which may include make, or model range or type of vehiclesuch as recreational, watercraft, RV, etc.). The indicator may alsoinclude the desired monthly payment or range of payments. From thefinancing information and the vehicle indicator, the approved creditconditions are determined (806) including the approved TATF. The creditconditions may also include an interest rate range based upon thefinancial institution lending guidelines which can be used by the systemto determine appropriate vehicles. If the vehicle indicator price rangeis less than or equal to the approved TAFT (YES at 808) the inventory ofavailable vehicles can then be searched (810) to determine possiblematches within the vehicle indicator defining the purchaser price rangeand preferences. The searching of the inventory provided in the vehiclerepository is performed as previously described in methods 4 and 5.

If the vehicle indicator price range is above the approved TATF (NO at808) the system performing the method can then identify a new vehicleindicator, such as a lower general classification within an approvedprice range to the purchaser. For example if the purchaser had selectedthe Compact vehicle class but does not meet the financing requirements,for example they would require a specified amount of money down to meetthe financing institutions requirements or the monthly payments would betoo high, a lower class such as the Economy vehicle class may beutilized to search the inventory (810) and the purchaser notified thattheir preferred vehicle indicator price range is not possible based uponthe credit information. If vehicles are available within the vehicleindicator price range (YES at 814) the eligible vehicles and associatedpayment information is returned (816). If vehicles are not availablewithin the vehicle indicator price range (NO at 814) additionalinventory sources may be searched (824) such as for example additionaldealer on-line inventories (826), shared inventories (828) and leasereturn inventories (830) additionally a dealer network, manufacturernetwork, online classified sites or any inventory available on the web.The system may also monitor for newly added vehicles to the inventory.Eligible vehicles and payment information can be presented to thepurchaser through the web or application interface (818). The user canthen select a vehicle for purchase (820). The delivery process can thenbe initiated (822) by processing the transaction through the financialinstitution by digital online contracting. The purchaser can be notifiedor a confirmation provided of the delivery process such as finalapproval by the financial institution, funds transfer, and deliveryschedule.

The disclosed system can integrate with financing and tracking systemsuch as for example Dealertrack™ and Route One™, to allow users toimport and export auto finance deals between both systems. The systemcan also be integrated with all the third party vehicle evaluationcompanies (i.e. Canadian Black Book), Inventory Management Systems (i.e.CDK™, Reynolds and Reynolds™, PBS . . . etc.) and syndication platforms(i.e. Autotrader™, eDealer™, cDemo™, Kijiji™ . . . etc.) to bring theuser a completely automated solution.

The present system contains visual content and which can be provided byshort message service (SMS) or emailed to the purchaser that they canview on their mobile devices. The purchaser receives an SMS from systemcontaining the units they are interested in, with pictures they canswipe through, with detailed information on the unit (ie AWD, mileage,color . . . etc.) and they can communicate back and forth to the systemthrough SMS messaging. A link can be provided by to a query resultidentifying vehicles available.

The integration of the system with 3rd party automotive tracking andfinancing application such as DealerTrack™ is provided through an XMLAPI which it allows purchaser data to be encoded and sent to theDealerTrack™ system, and after lenders have pre-approved a purchaser,allows them to export back that purchaser's updated data along with thepre-approval parameters of the lender.

The system allows for importing inventory data from multiple systemsusing multiple formats. Syndication is achieved through mutualconformance to a pre-defined method, data-format, and schedule. Forexample, syndication with AutoTrader™ is achieved by them exportinginventory data to an XML file and the system uses an inventory importerto access the file and parse its contents, pulling the data into thesystem. The extract, transfer, load (ETL) mechanism, allows multiplesources to be accessed that not only understands different types of dataand how to extract it, but also can be pre-configured to run businessrules on the data it is importing in order to enforce proper datahygiene, fill in missing or aggregate data, or just enforce a rulerequired by the individual dealership they could not achieve throughtheir system.

Although the above discloses example methods, apparatus including, amongother components, software executed on hardware, it should be noted thatsuch methods and apparatus are merely illustrative and should not beconsidered as limiting. For example, it is contemplated that any or allof these hardware and/or software components could be embodiedexclusively in hardware, exclusively in software, exclusively infirmware, or in any combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware.Accordingly, while the following describes example methods andapparatus, persons having ordinary skills in the art will readilyappreciate that the examples provided are not the only way to implementsuch method and apparatus. For example, the methods may be implementedin one or more pieces of computer hardware, including processors andmicroprocessors.

The present disclosure has described various systems and methods withregard to one or more embodiments. However, it will be apparent topersons skilled in the art that a number of variations and modificationscan be made without departing from the teachings of the presentdisclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for determining eligible vehicles for apurchaser, executed by a computing device, the method comprising:receiving purchaser financing information associated with a purchaser ofa vehicle; receiving a vehicle indicator associated with the purchaserdefining at least one vehicle value; determining credit conditionsassociated with the purchaser financing information from a financialinstitution; searching a data store containing a vehicle repositoryidentifying a plurality of available vehicles and associated vehicleinventory information using the vehicle indicator and a total amount tofinance (TATF) from the credit conditions and a determined value of arespective vehicle in the vehicle inventory information; and returning asubset of eligible vehicles determined from the vehicle repositorycomplying with financing booking requirements for the financialinstitution to a computing device of the purchaser for display thereon.2. The method of claim 1 wherein searching the data store furthercomprises: determining a minimum vehicle value required to providedesired or approved financing amount or desired or approved monthlypayments based upon financing booking requirements associated with afinancial institution and the purchaser financing information;determining a fixed interest rate from the finance booking requirementsbased on a model year of the respective vehicle for the purchaser; andcalculating a payment amount based on at least the fixed interest rateand the determined value of the respective vehicle for a defined term.3. The method of claim 2 wherein searching the data store comprises:processing the data store containing the vehicle repository identifyinga plurality of available vehicles and associated vehicle inventoryinformation, to identify from a plurality of available vehicles a subsetof eligible vehicles eligible for the purchaser for each vehicle havingan associated vehicle identification number (VIN) above a minimumvehicle value: calculating actual monthly payments for the vehicleassociated with a respective VIN; and adding the vehicle and monthlypayments to the subset of eligible vehicles for purchase when thecalculated actual monthly payments is equal to or below the desired orapproved monthly payments.
 4. The method of claim 3 wherein the vehicleis added to the subset of eligible vehicles when the TATF is greaterthan or equal to the determined value associated with the respectivevehicle and the calculated payment amount is less than or equal to thespecified payment amount.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein for eacheligible vehicle further determining a maximum loan term based on acondition of the vehicle, and wherein determining a payment amountcomprises determining a recurring payment amount based on a determinedfixed rate interest and the maximum loan term.
 6. The method of claim 5,wherein the maximum loan term is further based on mileage of thevehicle.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the finance bookingrequirements specify: fixed interest rates based on a model year of thevehicle and a plurality of credit ratings; maximum recurring paymentsbased on the plurality of credit ratings; and maximum amounts to financebased on vehicle value and the plurality of credit ratings.
 8. Themethod of claim 7, wherein the finance booking requirements furtherspecify: an allowable backend financing amount based on vehicle value.9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: for each of the eligiblevehicles for the purchaser, determining additional financing amounts by:determining a backend financing amount available from the financebooking requirements and the determined vehicle value associated withthe respective vehicle; and determining a frontend financing amountavailable from a difference between the TATF and the determined value ofthe respective vehicle.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the datastore of a plurality of available vehicles and associated vehicleinventory information stores for each vehicle: a unique vehicleidentification number (VIN) a make of the vehicle; a model of thevehicle; a model year of the vehicle; a trim level of the vehicle; andmileage of the vehicle.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein thedetermined value associated with the vehicle is determined from at leastone networked 3rd party valuation services.
 12. The method of claim 1,further comprising: periodically updating the data store to add vehicleinventory information of newly available vehicles and removingunavailable vehicles; and determining a book value for any newly addedvehicles from at least one more 3rd party valuation services.
 13. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising: receiving a selection of a vehiclefrom the eligible vehicles; initiating a final approval and deliveryprocess for the purchaser; and sending a confirmation to the computingdevice of the purchaser.
 14. The method of claim 1 wherein the purchaserfinancing information is received from the financial institution. 15.The method of claim 1 wherein the purchaser financing information isreceived from a vehicle purchasing website coupled to the financialinstitution.
 16. The method of claim 1 wherein the vehicle indicator ismodified when the vehicle is not found in the inventory.
 17. The methodof claim 1 wherein at least one additional vehicle inventory sources issearched when vehicle repository does not find any matching vehicles.18. A system for determining eligible vehicles for a purchasercomprising: a processor coupled to one or more vehicle inventory sourcecomputing devices through a network; a memory coupled to the processor,the memory containing instructions to: receive purchaser financinginformation associated with a purchaser of a vehicle; receive a vehicleindicator associated with the purchaser defining at least one vehiclevalue; determine credit conditions associated with the purchaserfinancing information from a financial institution; search a data storecontaining a vehicle repository identifying a plurality of availablevehicles and associated vehicle inventory information using the vehicleindicator and a total amount to finance (TATF) from the creditconditions and a determined value of a respective vehicle in the vehicleinventory information; and return a subset of eligible vehiclesdetermined from the vehicle repository complying with financing bookingrequirements for the financial institution to a computing device of thepurchaser for display thereon.
 19. A non-transitory computer readablememory containing instructions which when executed by a processorperforms a method of determining eligible vehicles for a purchaser, themethod comprising: receiving purchaser financing information associatedwith a purchaser of a vehicle; receiving a vehicle indicator associatedwith the purchaser defining at least one vehicle value; determiningcredit conditions associated with the purchaser financing informationfrom a financial institution; searching a data store containing avehicle repository identifying a plurality of available vehicles andassociated vehicle inventory information using the vehicle indicator anda total amount to finance (TATF) from the credit conditions and adetermined value of a respective vehicle in the vehicle inventoryinformation; and returning a subset of eligible vehicles determined fromthe vehicle repository complying with financing booking requirements forthe financial institution to a computing device of the purchaser fordisplay thereon.